Thursday, April 28, 2011

SKB PS-45 Powered Pedal Board

When the weather starts getting nice, I find myself spending a lot less time in front of my computer. Today it rained. So given the opportunity to work on my little pet project here, I'm taking a step away from the strictly for bass hardware.

When I first decided to get involved with effects and assemble a pedal board, I didn't really know how I intended to put them all together. Batteries are a pain in the ass, so I knew I wanted them to all run off of AC power. I looked into stand alone power supplies, building my own board and all that mess. Thats when I settled on the idea of a prefab powered pedal board, and the SKB PS-45 specifically. It may seem contrary to the concept of "bottom feeding" off of cheap gear to go for an expensive pedal board. My feeling was that in this case time and hassle definitely equals money. By the time I assembled all the components and spent hours building a board, I don't think I would have really saved myself any money.

So here it is, along with a few pedals I haven't talked about yet. Kind of a sneak preview. The SKB PS-45 is a hard shell case and pedal board. Its built like a tank - or at least a plastic tank. It has eight sockets that provide 9v power, and comes with enough wires to plug in and power pedals from all eight sockets. It also has three standard AC sockets incase you have pedals that run off of something besides 9v or if you want to plug in an LED lamp to illuminate your board for playing in a darkened room. It comes with a strip of heavy duty adhesive velcro for you to cut up and stick to your pedals. I picked up a roll of two-sided velcro "tape" at the hardware store that I use to fasten down all of the cables and cords that are going all over the place. If you want more technical info, you can check out SKB's product page here.

If you are morally opposed to velcro for some reason, then this (or really most) prefab pedal boards aren't for you. Even without pedals, this thing is heavy, but I consider that a plus. And though I haven't had occasion to check it out, the propaganda that shipped with the pedal board says that "every SKB hardshell case is unconditionally guaranteed forever." Repaired or replaced at no cost. I'm not intentionally rough with my stuff, but its good to know that they stand behind their gear. In my opinion, this board was money well spent.